Losing internet connection every few seconds

[gaz]

Got a Zyxel wireless router conencted to a Virgin Media cable internet modem, and the following connected:

 

HP Laptop Windows 7 (wireless connection)

HP Laptop Windows 7 (wireless connection)

Dell Laptop Windows 7 (wireless connection)

Acer Desktop Windows Vista (wired connection)

Xbox 360 (wired connection)

Wii (wireless connection)

iPhone 4 (wireless connection)

iPhone 4 (wireless connection)

 

None of them have problems, apart from the Acer which has developed the problem of losing connection to the router every few seconds. The symptoms are, the PC looks for te connection, finds it, connects, then before you can really do anything it drops the connection and starts the process again. Looking at the log on the router, you can see endless instances of ''DHCP server assigns 192.168.1.41 to AcerPC'' every 10-20 secs. I thought it was something virusey, AVG Free didn't pick anything up but MBAM found 42 infections (not sure what they were though, its Dad's PC and he just clicked Quarantine without looking at what/why/where). Once dealt with, it seemed to work for an evening but the problem came back the next time it was turned on. Also, the PC has been recently formatted, and again it worked for a few hours, but the problem started up again today. The PC is too far from the modem to try a direct connection but I'm doubting its the router as the other items on the network have no problems, and they are a mix of wired and wireless.

 

So what do we think is the likely culprit? A virus or a dodgy network card?

[sotonswan]

I'm no expert, but can think of a couple of simple things to try first

a) switch over the Acer and Xbox (your wired connections) at the router. See if the problem transfers to the Xbox. If so, a port has failed on the router. Try any unused ports or add a switch (e.g. NETGEAR GS605) to the single good port or replace router.

b) Replace cable between Acer and router with a new one. Cables can fail if subjected to repeated stresses e.g. stood on or bent in a doorway.

 

If neither of these simple steps works then I guess you could replace the NIC in the Acer. They are dirt cheap.

Or maybe do a clean OS re-install - but obviously this is a pain.

 

Good luck.

[trousers]

Clutching at straws but maybe reached a limit on the number of devices and whenever one of your mobile devices connects it bumps off the laptop.

 

Truth is, I've no idea.

 

Yours helpfully...

[saint_stevo]

I guess your DHCP pool is smaller than 8 addresses?

 

You could try statically assigning your Acer an I.P, say 192.168.1.200 which shouldn't be in use and see if that helps.

 

If you want me to clarify anything just say so

[gaz]

Turns out the router was goosed. Swapped over the hard connections, no difference. Went to reset the router and it locked me out from the Admin page. Hard reset via the button and it didn't boot up when connected. It got replaced with a Belkin and has been problem-free on all devices so far. Cheers for the suggestions

[gaz]

I think I spoke too soon....

 

So to recap, we've now got a Belkin F6D4230uk4 N150 wireless router conencted to a Virgin Media cable internet modem, and the following connected:

 

HP Laptop Windows 7 (wireless connection)

HP Laptop Windows 7 (wireless connection)

Dell Laptop Windows 7 (wireless connection)

Acer Desktop Windows Vista (wired connection)

Xbox 360 (wired connection)

Wii (wireless connection)

iPhone 4 (wireless connection)

iPhone 4 (wireless connection)

 

Connection is fine and stable for all devices apart from mine, which is one of the HP Laptops (a G61-410SA to be precise). Sometimes it can connect fine and surf the web with no issues at all, then out of the blue it'll lose connection with the router, or run very slowly and timeout on pages. I can disconnect from the router and reconnect and it'll go back to normal for a couple of hours, or in worse cases I have to press the WiFi button on the laptop to turn off the network card. If I allow Windows to troubleshoot the lack of connectivity, 50% of the time it'll disable the network adaptor and re-enable it, solving the issue until next time, or it'll say it can't help, so I should reboot the router.

 

No other device connected to the router loses connection, Malwarebytes and AVG Free didn't find anything malicious on the laptop, the network is secure so I don't think anyone is piggybacking off us. Did two speed tests via the website and the iPhone app during one of the periods it was running slow, iPhone said 15meg and the laptop said 0.4meg. Clearly theres something up and I'm suspecting a setting on either the laptop or the router. This laptop never had an issue with the Zyxel router before.

 

Googling it suggested trying to change the TCP/IPv4 DNS setting from Automatic to the following:

 

 

That seemed to work for a few days but the problem is back.

[gaz]

It just did another 5-10min bout of going slow and disconnecting from the router, heres the speed test the Laptop got when it came back on:

 

 

Whilst a few minutes beforehand the iPhone got this:

 

 

To get it to come back on, this window popped up after I asked it to troubleshoot the issue. Stable for now but it'll go again.

 

Edited 3 November, 2011 by gaz

[saint_stevo]

Go into device manager and try to update the driver for your wireless card. Failing this uninstall it and reboot, should pick it up again

 

Are you using windows to manage your wireless connection or a HP utility?

[gaz]

Drivers are up to date, firmware on the router is up to date too. I'm using Windows to do it. It seems intermittant and a lot of Googling suggested it was either something malicious, or something to do with the network card. The power plan is a slightly tweaked version of HP's own, but read it can interfere with the network card at certain times, so I've disabled the power saving feature that turns the card off, just in case it was trying to do so whilst browsing. Its been running without much issue for 3-4hrs now, so I'll post again if/when it plays up.

[ART]

Have you tried using a program like CCleaner to clear out all the temperory files, then do the Registry clean and finally

take a look at Start Up Section and disable all but your anti virus and sound card. Restart, if no problems then delete all these Start up prgrams. Finally see if that speeds up and averts connection cutting. You can download CCleaner for FREE at Filehippo http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

 

You can also look at your Firewall or if you don't have one the Windows Firewall on the Control panel. Ensure you've given all necessary permissions to connect.

Edited 3 November, 2011 by ART

[saint_stevo]

CCleaner=VILE. Hate that program, more harm than good in the wrong hands IMO.

 

When you next lose connection, check event viewer in computer management to see if anything is logged on the machine

[gaz]

Just had a good 10-15mins of no connection. Here's the Event Viewer logs.

 

- Name resolution for the name dns.msftncsi.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

 

- WLAN Extensibility Module has stopped. Module Path: C:\Windows\system32\athihvs.dll

- WLAN Extensibility Module has stopped. Module Path: C:\Windows\system32\athihvs.dll

- WLAN Extensibility Module has stopped. Module Path: C:\Windows\system32\athihvs.dll

 

- Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 0xF07BCB7A1F87. The following error occurred: 0x79. Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

 

- WLAN Extensibility Module has stopped. Module Path: C:\Windows\system32\athihvs.dll

- WLAN Extensibility Module has stopped. Module Path: C:\Windows\system32\athihvs.dll

 

And then it connected fine and I'm browsing now.

[gaz]

While I'm connected I get this from IPConfig, I'll post up what it says when I'm not connected next time:

 

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

Copyright © 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

C:\Users\Garry>ipconfig/all

 

Windows IP Configuration

 

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : MilkyJoe

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Belkin

 

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

 

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR9285 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : F0-7B-CB-7A-1F-87

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5198:7fc5:cad7:9b3b%12(Preferred)

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.12(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 08 November 2011 4:02:43 PM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 15 December 2147 10:48:54 PM

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1

DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 334527435

DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-12-84-51-D3-C8-0A-A9-4D-2D-A9

 

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

 

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

 

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8102E/RTL8103E Family PCI-E Fa

st Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20)

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C8-0A-A9-4D-2D-A9

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 12:

 

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft 6to4 Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

Tunnel adapter isatap.Belkin:

 

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

Tunnel adapter isatap.{95F50EBE-F86F-49EE-B926-40D24E78454F}:

 

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 14:

 

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e76:203a:2ad4:afff:595c(Pref

erred)

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::203a:2ad4:afff:595c%17(Preferred)

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

[Channon's Windmill]

I have just got over a similar issue. My laptop was losing connection to my wireless router about once per minute for 10-15 seconds. I have other devices (PS3, XBOX, iPhone) which had no problem. It turned out to be the fact that there were so many other wireless routers in range that were broadcasting on the same channel as mine. I changed the channel that my router was using, and the problem went away instantly. I had to restart my iPhone so it picked up the new channel but that was all.

[gaz]

I'll give that a go and see. This laptop picks up 4-5 other networks on a regular basis and I know at least one is also a Belkin router so that sounds plausable.